I understand you are concerned about side effects of Keppra. Acutally, all
antiepilectic drugs have side effects, and keppra as the newest one has less
side effects compared with old meds. Keppra is also thought to be very
broad spectrum and safe.
One of my coworker daughter was put on Keppra for post-occiptial region
seizures. She had been on Keppra for 2 years, a very active volleyball
player through these years. She was just taken off the medication recently.
So far, so good.
I just had an epilepsy class two weeks ago, and had some notes from the
professor. If you want it, you could drop your email acount to me. If you
live in D.C area, I also refer you a wonderful pediatric neurologist who is
also the professor of our lecture.
As you said, your son's episodes comes more frequently. I copied some
contents from the notes, hopefully, it will answer some of your questions.
The follwing is just copies from my notes:
If you have one seizure, what’s the risk of having another?
A: There’s only about a 40% risk of having another seizure in the next five
years. So, we don’t immediately put them on medication.
However, if there has been a recurrence, (a second seizure), then the chance
of a third is 75%. Repeated seizures generally warrant medication,
depending on the syndrome.
To treat, or not to treat? Should we treat everybody with a seizure?
One of the problems with epilepsy is the risk of sudden death. We try
and reassure patients that it’s okay to have seizures. It only affects 1%
of your life. The chief justice of the Supreme Court has epilepsy, in fact.
But, there is an increasingly recognized risk of SUDEP (sudden unexpected
death in epilepsy).
• Of people with active epilepsy, 10% of them died from status
epilepticus. Status epilepticus is defined as a state of seizures, either
continuous or serial seizures (without recovery in between) lasting for at
least 30 minutes.
o Serial seizures are measured from the beginning of the first one to the
end of the last one, without subtracting the time in between seizures.
• Accidents do happen to people with epilepsy.
o Example: we have at least one drowning per year, and recently had an
epileptic child in a confused state who walked in front of a metro train.
• Any chronic disease, including epilepsy, can cause depression and
hopelessness. This explains why suicide rates tend to be high amongst
epileptics.
• SUDEP.
o People with uncontrolled seizures have a higher risk of dying
unexpectedly.
